Launched in 2007, Secret Cinema is an organisation that stage cinema events around London and the UK, selling tickets to audiences without them knowing what film they’re about to see. Events incorporate theatre, live music and food with the aim of recreating the setting of the film to be screened.

Secret Cinema’s most recent event, elaborate screenings of Terry Gilliam’s1985 filmBrazil,was staged across a 13-floor office block in West Croydon in London from May to June. It marked Secret Cinema’s 20th production.

Before the event, audiences connected online through a specially-built social network where they were given an “employment identity”. Around 2,500 audience members gathered at Canary Wharf in the weeks before to take part in a mass synchronised dance.

More than 25,000 audience members attended over the five-week period alongside hundreds of actors, artists and dancers. Music was contributed by Imogen Heap, Atoms for Peace and The Knife among others. Live concerts were held by The Basement Orchestra and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, with choreography by Wayne McGregor.

During the event, audience members helped make commercials and short films that were later broadcast throughout the building. Gilliam said the event was “a wondrously mad and spectacular undertaking.” For those of you unable to make it to the Secret Cinema version of Brazil, here is a video:

The film is named after the recurrent theme song “Aquarela do Brasil”, composed by Ary Barroso in 1939 and performed by Geoff Muldaur.